Flexible packaging printing inks are typically printed by rotary letterpress printing using flexible rubber plates or by gravure printing using engraved chrome-plated cylinders on a wide variety of substrates, e.g. plastic films such as cellulose acetate, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polyesters, polystyrene, cellophane, glassine, tissue, aluminum foils, liners, bags, paper labels, box coverings, gift wrappings, etc.
Flexible packaging printing inks are widely used in the graphic arts industry. They offer economy, versatility, quality and simplicity and permit a roll of material to be multi-color printed in a continuous web at speeds of over 300 meters per minute and feed it directly to converting machines for slitting, forming or laminating. However, these inks must be carefully formulated so as to avoid the problems indigenous to these types of inks, e.g. chemical pinholing (failure of the ink to properly wet a plastic film surface), mechanical pinholing (the appearance of the pattern of the etched ink form roller), feathering (the appearance of stringy or ragged edges), mottle (ridged or speckled patterns), precipitation of part of the vehicle, blocking (a sticking or transfer of the image to the underside of the web), adhesion of the ink to the substrate, etc.
The inks of the present invention overcome the printing problems alluded to above because of the unique type of copolymer as well as the cellulose acetate butyrate employed in conjunction with the pigment and the solvent. Prior art inks containing resins such as shellac, nitrocellulose, ethyl cellulose, cellulose acetate propionate, conventional polyamide resins, acrylic and methacrylic resins, ketone resins, polyvinyl chloride, etc. have been found to be clearly disadvantageous in comparison to the inks of the present invention.